My friend and neighbor John, who is a few years younger than me, decided to take up big game hunting this year.

John's a Colorado native and has been an outdoorsman his whole life, but he concentrated his efforts on backpacking and mountaineering.

I never asked him why he decided to take up hunting so late in life, but I did see it coming when he started asking about what caliber rifle I shoot and my ideas on where to hunt and how to prepare big game for the table.

The next thing I knew, John's wife, Sue, and his sons gave him a .30-06 Winchester Model 70 for Christmas last year. Somewhere in that mix of time they also bought a second home in Leadville.

I think the initial plan for the Leadville home was to serve as a Summit County base of operations for day trips to the nearby ski areas, hiking trails and the occasional mountain ascent. But it didn't take long for John to realize that Leadville is in the heart of some pretty good deer and elk hunting and not far from South Park and antelope hunting.

My part in this story began more than a year ago when Sue asked me what would be a good rifle for John. Although I shoot a .270, I said she couldn't go wrong with a .30-06 bolt action rifle, and if I knew what I knew now that's what I'd have gotten for Colorado big game.

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Later on, I offered my occasional 2 cents on which limited license big game seasons John might want to apply for and tagged along to the shooting range to check out the new rifle. We also spent some Sunday afternoons driving around scouting out the antelope hunting possibilities in the game management units John had drawn. I wasn't able to help out when John actually went antelope hunting because I was off hunting elk on the Western Slope.

Ed Engle
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PAUL AIKEN
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John had also drawn a doe deer license for a later season on the west side of Boreas Pass, and I was able to go along with him and our friend Tom, who lives just up the road, for that hunt. We didn't have time to scout the hunting area before we went, so we all acknowledged that this would most likely be more of a warm-up for the 2013 hunting seasons. We also agreed that you have no chance of hunting success at all if you don't get out there and try. So we did.

Neither Tom nor I had licenses. We were along to help move game toward John and with any luck to help carry a deer back to the truck. As much as I'd like to say the stars aligned perfectly and John got his deer, that wasn't the case. We found some elk signs and actually saw a few does out in a field on private land on the east side of Boreas Pass, but when we got over the pass it became clear that any deer that might have been there had already headed to lower elevations. Nonetheless, we pressed on and put together a few drives just to see if we could push anything John's way. The results were negative.

But an interesting thing happened during our one-day hunt. When we were at the trailhead to the hunting area, an SUV pulled up with what looked like some 20- or 30-year-old hikers who were up from the nearby town of Breckenridge. I expected we might get the hairy eyeball or worse because hunters aren't always popular with hikers, but just the opposite occurred.

One of the hikers asked if we'd gotten anything yet and then proudly announced that her husband had already gotten their deer. The other hikers chimed in with their own stories. We got the same reception from several other groups of hikers we met during the day. This might not sound like a big deal, but I can remember other days hunting when some hikers or mountain bikers weren't so kind.

I'd like to think that younger non-hunters have a new understanding about hunting. Maybe they differentiate between the stereotypical slob hunter and what I like to think are a growing number of hunters who take the responsibility of hunting seriously. We are the hunters who meticulously sight-in our rifles and live by the motto of one shot, one kill. We don't take shots we can't make, and we are as meticulous about caring for the meat as we are about our hunting.

Maybe the movement toward eating locally produced food has changed some minds or Michael Pollan's wildly popular book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," has something to do with it. It could be as simple as people wanting to know where their food comes from. Whatever the reason, I'm glad that there appears to be an uptick in responsible hunting.

We never did see any animals on the west side of Boreas Pass, but I know every time I go into the field I learn a little more about hunting and the outdoors, whether I'm doing the shooting or not. And we did eventually find a few meadows that felt pretty gamey. The sign indicated elk, but that doesn't mean there won't be deer in them next year.

We're into the holiday season now, and there will be plenty of wonderful meals served to and by friends, neighbors, family and strangers. And I know I'll be taking a few moments to appreciate where those meals came from.

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